Operation to end Durham skipper's season

After being ruled out of the debacle against Glamorgan he hoped to return against his former county, Essex, but was confined to the Colchester sidelines as Durham lost by four wickets.

Paul Collingwood's neck problem continues to respond slowly to treatment, but he will not be fit for the match against Northamptonshire starting at the Riverside tomorrow.

That means Nicky Phillips is likely to continue as skipper, with coach Martyn Moxon saying: "It's not easy for him being thrust into the job, but I have no complaints about his captaincy."

Nor did Moxon have any complaints about the effort put in by Durham on Saturday, when Essex reached a target of 321 in 91 overs with four overs to spare.

"We worked hard but we just didn't bowl well enough," he said. "We got off to a bad start and were never really able to create pressure. And John Stephenson showed the value of experience in making his century.

"A lot of good things came out of the game and it was a big improvement on last week. We asked for fight and commitment and we got that."

Six of Essex's seven wins this season have come when chasing a target and they never looked like failing once Darren Robinson and Will Jefferson had 50 on the board in nine overs.

Although the pitch held up well, there was turn available and Phillips should have been Durham's danger man.

He followed his best championship score of 58 not out with four for 103, but the relevant statistic was that he had one for 85 before his second wicket arrived with Essex facing the simple task of scoring 38 off ten overs with six wickets left.

He struck twice more but continued to concede runs and was finally cut for four by Stephenson to bring up his hundred with the match-winning stroke.

At 37, Stephenson returned from Hampshire this season to act as Essex's second team coach. But he was thrust into the first team because of injuries and has rediscovered his best form with bat and ball.

With Essex on 87 for one after 25 overs at lunch, Phillips gave Ian Hunter a second short spell, which proved just as wayward as his first, and tried his own off-spin from the other end.

Stephenson smashed his third ball over mid-on for four, lifted the next high over long-on for six, and followed that with a cover drive for four.

It was a more a signal that Phillips would not be allowed to dominate than any statement of aggressive intent from Stephenson, who was content to play the anchor role once Robinson, who has scored 1,338 first-class runs this season, departed for 48.

Phillips suddenly found extra lift in his sixth over and Robinson edged to Marc Symington at slip, but the Durham skipper's chance to seize the initiative at 134 for two was quickly lost as he followed up with a poor over, which cost nine runs.

Essex were cruising as Andy Flower added 51 with Stephenson, but the Zimbabwean rashly went down the pitch to Mark Davies and miscued to mid-off for 27.

Davies bowled the best spell of the innings before tea and Stephenson edged him just short of first slip on 50 then cut him just out of Michael Gough's reach at gully.

Essex still needed 128 off 34 overs at tea and Durham continued to keep them quiet while England Under 19 batsman Mark Pettini settled in.

He looked very reluctant to get forward, but suddenly drove Phillips for a straight six and runs began to flow impressively from his bat.

He took 11 off an over from Davies, including an edged four, to reach 50 off 72 balls and had contributed 64 to a stand of 98 when he stepped across to work Phillips to leg and was bowled off his pads.

Ravinder Bopara and Jon Dakin both edged Phillips to Andrew Pratt, but not before both had hit two fours in an over to ease Stephenson's workload.

His century took 216 balls and apart from his brief assault on Phillips it was by no means spectacular.

But it provided just the sort of experienced knowhow which Durham lack, and while they would be unwise to abandon their youth policy one signing such as Stephenson could be a big help

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